Born This Way (Episode)
Born This Way is the eighteenth episode of Glee of Season 2 and the 40th episode overall. It aired on April 26th, 2011 and ran for an extended length of 90 minutes (with commercials).Airdate confirmed Plot During dance rehearsals for the upcoming Nationals competion, glee club co-captain Finn Hudson breaks Rachel Berry's nose, caused by his bad dancing. Her doctor recommends elective rhinoplasty, and Rachel considers modelling her nose after Quinn's seemingly perfect nose. The two share a mash-up duet of 'Unpretty' by TLC and 'I Feel Pretty' from West Side Story. Both Finn and Rachel's friend Puck oppose her planned transformation. Puck tries to help her accept her nose as part of her Jewish heritage and recruits Kurt Hummel, who convinces her to look to her idol Barbra Streisand; someone who famously refused to succumb to pressure to alter her nose. The three of them join the rest of New Directions and a mall flash mob in performing Duck Sauce's 'Barbra Streisand'. In the end, Rachel decides against having surgery. Club member Santana Lopez uses Rachel's broken nose as a launching point to highlight the other group members' flaws. Aiming to help them achieve self-acceptance, glee club director Will Schuester urges them to embrace their perceived flaws, by printing them on T-shirts to be worn during a group performance of Lady Gaga's 'Born This Way'. He also encourages school guidance counsellor Emma Pillsbury to confront her OCD. She visits a therapist and admits to feeling ashamed of her condition. Though she is initially reluctant to be medicated, her therapist attempts to convince her that she can be helped and prescribes a low-dose SSRI which Emma takes, before emblazoning a T-shirt with "OCD". Santana, now a closeted lesbian, plans to run for school prom queen in the hope that she can win the love of her best friend Brittany Pierce . She discovers that popular jock Dave Karofsky is also in the closet and suggests that they become one another's beards. Santana devises a plan to enable Kurt's return to McKinley from his new school Dalton Academy, ostensibly to bolster the group's chance at Nationals but really to boost her own popularity in an attempt to be voted prom queen. She claims to rehabilitate Karofsky (by blackmail), who'd previously bullied Kurt out of the school and the pair begin an anti-bullying scheme. Karofsky issues an apology to Kurt at a group meeting involving Will, Principal Figgins and their respective fathers. Kurt proposes that they start a school PFLAG club and rejoices in transferring back to McKinley. Once Kurt transfers back to McKinley, everyone in the glee club warmly welcomes him. Kurt's boyfriend Blaine Anderson serenades him with a rendition of Keane's 'Somewhere Only We Know', backed by the Dalton Academy glee club, the Warblers. Upon his re-entry to New Directions, Kurt gives a solo performance of 'As If We Never Said Goodbye' from Sunset Boulevard. As the race for prom queen intensifies, Lauren Zizes begins a retaliatory campaigning against Quinn. She discovers that Quinn's real name is Lucy and that she used to be an overweight outcast who had rhinoplasty before re-inventing herself and transfering to McKinley. Her explanation for her actions is: "That’s me. My middle name is Quinn, I stopped going by Lucy because kids made up a mean nickname, Lucy Caboosey. I hated the way I looked. I had zits, I was chubby. I felt terrible about myself. I didn’t have friends. Nobody would talk to me. I was the only kid at school who had to dissect their own frog because nobody would be my lab partner. And then I joined ballet, lost a little bit of weight, found out I was athletic and joined gymnastics and cheerleading, went on proactive for my acne, and when my dad got transferred he got a raise, and I asked him if I could get a nose job, and he said yes, and I asked them to call me Quinn. I love myself, and thats why I did all those things. I’ve been that girl, and I’m never going back. I was a miserable little girl. And now I’m gonna be prom queen." Lauren attempts to sabotage her campaign by revealing her former image to the other students but it backfires when Quinn's popularity actually increases amongst the girls who had previously looked up to Lauren. Humbled, Lauren apologizes but Quinn concedes and respects her for being proud of herself just as she is. Brittany tries to help Santana embrace her lesbian identity and prints her a misspelled T-shirt reading "Lebanese", that was supposed to read "Lesbian". Santana refuses to join in with the Gaga performance but does wear the T-shirt. The episode closes with the club,embracing their identities and performing 'Born This Way', while Santana and Dave watch from the auditorium. They all wore the t-shirts reflecting the traits they have learned to accept namely: *Artie - "Four Eyes" *Brittany - "I'm With Stoopid" (Upwards Arrow) *Finn - "Can't Dance" *Kurt - "Likes Boys" *Lauren - "Bad Attitude" *Mercedes - "No Weave!" *Mike - "Can't Sing" *Puck - "I'm With Stupid" (Downwards Arrow) *Quinn - "Lucy Caboosey" (A reference to a cruel nick-name given to her when she was young before coming to McKinley) *Sam - "Trouty Mouth" (Because of his mouth) *Santana - "Bitch" (Hers) "Lebanese" (Brittany's for her, but she meant "Lesbian") *Tina - "Brown Eyes" (Tina wears blue contacts to hide her naturally brown eyes because she's, according to Mike, a self hating asian) *Emma - "OCD" (Obsessive Compulsive Disorder) "Ginger" (at first, then she changed it to OCD.) *Rachel - "Nose" (Santana makes fun of her saying she has a "big schnauze" and a "humongous beak." *Will - "Butt Chin" Songs *'I Feel Pretty/Unpretty' from/by West Side Story/''TLC''. Sung by Quinn and Rachel. *'I've Gotta Be Me' by Sammy Davis, Jr. Sung by Finn and danced by Mike. *'Somewhere Only We Know' by Keane. Sung by Dalton Academy Warblers and New Directions. *'As If We Never Said Goodbye' from Sunset Boulevard. Sung by Kurt. *'Barbra Streisand' by Duck Sauce. Background song on flashdance. *'Born This Way' by Lady Gaga. Sung by New Directions. Recurring Cast and Guest Stars 'Recurring Cast' * Harry Shum Jr. as Mike Chang * Chord Overstreet as Sam Evans * Ashley Fink as Lauren Zizes * Max Adler as David Karofsky * Iqbal Theba as Principal Figgins * Darren Criss as Blaine Anderson ' * James Earl as 'Azimio 'Guest Stars' * Kathleen Quinlan as Dr. Shane * Daniel Roebuck as [[Paul Karofsky|'Paul Karofsky']] Images g2.jpg Da74w535.jpg gleeset.JPG 2wfs3l5.png 006~14.jpg 005~14.jpg tumblr_lim0jvKqVN1qfeor7.png PPLBTWW.jpg btw - t shirts.gif mike and finn dancing.gif btw - mike spins.gif born.jpg tumblr_ljmd9lEwz91qititfo1_500.jpg tumblr_ljmcwsI6BD1qbrmgpo1_500.jpg tumblr_ljmdbmeyqC1qititfo1_500.jpg btw episode still 1.jpg Jayma shirt.jpg|Jayma with her BTW-shirt. tumblr_ljxfq6CJWr1qafewko1_500.gif|Kurt is back! Glee-sam-and-finn-funny o GIFSoup.com (1).gif Mike Dancing.png glee-born-this-way-2.jpg|Kurt at the Mall. tumblr_lk8gapA9G41qhoazho1_250.jpg|Hulu's icon for BTW. Rachel can be seen. Footnotes Category:Episodes Category:Upcoming Episodes Category:Season Two Episodes